ROMhack •
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To be fair, I imagine there are plenty of people who pay money for this type of thing who only buy about two games. For them, it's not going to be as much of a big deal as it is to those who readily feel they spend enough money on games. I get the feeling EA misjudged the situation with Battlefront 2. Reply+2

It's a bit of a personal point but I don't feel much inclination to use Steam anymore. It used to feel like a genuine alternative which prioritised the social experience (i.e. groups) but it's become very convoluted lately. They also seemingly let any old tat through, which irks me a little. I understand it's good for small, independent developers but I think they ought to split the homepage up a bit. I certainly don't think they promote indie games well, unless they happen to catch your eye in the new releases or popular game section - which don't last long.

I'd liken the experience of using Steam these days to Facebook insofar as it was once a streamlined service that let you use it the way you wanted to. Now, it feels more like Steam wants too much control. They also appear to both value the use of algorithms over humans which gets my back up a bit, especially as it would be a simple way of sorting out the issue with buggy, broken titles. Reply+3

Interesting. I subscribed to PS Now for a while but ended up cancelling as it doesn't include anything remotely new and all the games featured are cheap as chips anyway. I assume we might now be entering a point in time where both Sony and Microsoft realise they're going to have to include current gen games. Good move by Microsoft to get the ball rolling first.

Of course, I'd absolutely love to see Nintendo do something similar but I reckon there's a greater chance of pigs flying in the sky. Reply+2

It's a game in which you re-live the 90s by way of artefacts inside a middle-class American home by playing as a college girl who finds out about her sister's love life by rummaging around her knick-knacks. Also some other elements about her family too.

How appealing that concept sounds to you is precisely how much you'll enjoy Gone Home.

For what it's worth, I liked it when it came out. I didn't connect emotionally with it as a lot of others did, but liked the way it pivoted around indirectly finding things out about other people rather than having them tell you directly. I thought it was pretty relevant for a world who usually learn about each other through Facebook likes (and probably still is).

I don't think I'll replay it but it's a nice gesture to see it being given away for free. Reply+2

"Its a fucking disgrace to have such little respect for the art and people hours that go into media. Cant you just do another job for 5 fucking minutes instead of cutting into my movie watching and credits time?"

I used to work in a cinema and though I agree that it's ridiculous practice, I think you're blaming the wrong people. The lowly cleaning staff who want to get on with the cleaning aren't even fit to wipe the boots of the managers pulling all the programming shots (or so the managers would like to think).

From experience, you wouldn't believe how little turn around time you get sometimes. And I used to work at an independent so I bet it's even worse at the chains! Reply+9

I wanted it to be good but once I read the story was something about a technocratic villain I realised it'd be rubbish. Simply put, it didn't sound coherent to the futuristic, corporate-driven world to have a clear, out-in-the-open type of villain. A Deus Exian band of shadow puppets pulling invisible strings would have made more sense.

Surprised to hear the gameplay is lacking (also heard the same thing on The Guardan). Usually it's the one thing that AAA pubs get right. Reply+2

PES was my series of choice up to 2013 but the last two (three?) have been incomplete. And it's published by Konami after all so on Earth why would I expect this next one to be good now?

I don't love EA or FIFA either but at least they tend to finish their games without any glaring omissions. Personally, I think PES gets an easy time given how games get slaughtered these days if they're released unfinished. Reply+2

Personally going to need some pretty big reassurances over this thing. The Wii U has some excellent first-party games but it had less variety than any Nintendo consoles that came before it and that was simply not cool.

More to the point, I don't know how Nintendo can sustain another console like the Wii U. At least half of dedicated Ninty buyers I know have been turned off by the company.

Even though it matters not a jot to those who didn't, it does raise questions about the audience Nintendo intend to capture next time around. Reply+4

Oh yes, Keith. Somebody brought up Bastion to me recently as an example of a great game story before proceeding to forget why the backstory even matters that much in the first place. Clearly, they appreciated the rival factions (or whatever is was) but they inadvertently highlighted the way people often mistake 'amount' of likeable narrative backstory for genuine depth. In that case, I thought it was telling because Bastion does actually invoke some other themes that matter way more than whatever things happened in the world before you got there. Reply0

"It's no secret, obviously there's going to be another Borderlands. It's like printing money, we'd be mad not to!" Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford said while throwing a stack of notes up in the air to amuse himself. Reply+43

In Starfox Adventures there was a section where you had to press some buttons really fast to turn a wheel or something. Being 11, I just couldn't do it so instead I found a hot tip online that said to grind your whole knuckle on the controller really fast. I did it, it worked but I was left with some pretty painful shredding.

It's quite irritating to see all of the games GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE make called 'Suda 51 games' when his personal input on them differs quite tremendously dependent on whether he's writing, directing, designing or simply producing. The latter in this case.

I'm sure he plays a role in dictating some of the design elements of the game but his main role these days is CEO these days. Reply+1

Ł80 is a lot of cash to ask people to spend on a single game. RB4 was even worse at around Ł200. What can you do with all of those plastic instruments once you are bored with the game as well. They all end up collecting dust in a cupboard or in a skip.'

Good point. It's probably a lesson learnt from the Wii in many ways.

Plus millenials (a core market you'd think) are pretty notorious for downsizing everything these days. I was only reading on the FT the other day about how the interest in owning things has been completely shot.

Speaking as somebody who moves around every 6 months or so... yeah I'm not lumbering myself with anything bigger than a laptop. Reply+1

There's something about a lack of control - but not too much of it - that compels us into madness. It's like knowledge; we desperately claw at it but only find ourselves getting further away from it. Good designers do understand that and play on our compulsions.

The writing analogy at the start is great. Writers (novelists) typically write as a way of making sense of the world - as do readers - but they frequently get into mental anguish doing so. Just like we do, playing the game (albeit to a much lesser extent). Reply0

I'm usually as self-serious a gamer as you can find, and just as self-deprecating, but I've always found a major joy in Resi (and Dino Crisis) for the thrill of their nonsensical z-movie plots. I found that completely missing in REmake, and that's why I've never got on board with it, but I'm, like, well chuffed they've decided to randomly remake this one. Reply+1

Wouldn't having a comment section with more structure cease the kind of negatives we see here?

Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but sites which use Disqus feel don't feel anywhere near as vitriolic as EG does these days. Plus, at least you can respond easier to specific comments, which is fucking great because it invites conversation, not just individuals spouting their mouths off (like I'm doing here).

I really like the game as a bit of fun, but after about 5 matches I start to wonder what to do. Ranked points are one thing but I feel like I should have something more to aim for. What they did in something like Euro 2008 with ongoing random 16 player tournaments would be perfect for Rocket League. Reply0

Oh well, this is what we get in the new child-gamer age. Game makers are striving to appeal to the love it this month, trash it next month gamers. I feel for them though because while the adult gamer can still quietly enjoy the rich gaming experience of a grotesquely poor graphics game from before the MS-DOS days even still find awe and mystery today, the games of today demonstrate magnificent graphics, wondrous views, and an utterly gorgeous virtual experience, and they often lack the same depth in game play, mysteries, and discovery.

To be fair, I think it's also down to the proliferation of releases. Numbers-wise, the amount of games released every week is so vast that we're put into a situation of extreme where we have to divide our attention between so many or question our status as a 'gamer'.

Couple this with video-game writers coming out with a 'play them all' type of mentality and it's obvious why nobody finds hidden joys in anything these days. They simply aren't looking for it and/or are being taught not to.

I struggle myself but I think the last thing of note I did was to buy a copy of Moby Dick to try and figure out its similarities to MGSV. I mean, I had to try and figure out if it's ridiculous length was an homage or not. As well, as the blatant intertextual reference during the opening. So, some people still care; most don't. Reply-1

[From Wiki] The story of Shadow of the Colossus begins as Wander enters the forbidden land, travelling across the long bridge at its entrance on his horse, Agro. According to Lord Emon later in the game, prior to entering the forbidden land Wander had stolen an ancient sword, which is the only weapon capable of slaying the colossi of the forbidden land. Led to the massive Shrine of Worship at the center of the region, Wander carries with him the body of a maiden named Mono. A moment later, several man-like shadowy creatures appear and prepare to attack Wander before he easily dismisses them with a wave of the ancient sword in his possession. After vanquishing the shadow creatures, the voice of the disembodied entity known as "Dormin" echoes from above, expressing surprise that Wander possesses the weapon. Wander requests that Dormin return Mono's soul to her body, which it states may be possible on the condition that Wander can destroy the sixteen idols lining the temple's hall by using the ancient sword to kill the sixteen colossi located throughout the land. Despite being warned by Dormin that he may have to pay a great price to revive Mono, Wander sets out to search the land for the colossi and destroy them

I thought MG:R was really boring to be honest. Different, yes; fun, yes; but it was like Metal Gear Solid without the part that holds all the craziness together and makes it all worthwhile -- the story. Sure, it had it but the scope was minimal, at best.

I generally really like Platinum Games but they're schlocky type of insane stylised action didn't sit well for me in the Metal Gear universe. It just lacked the essence of politics and history that holds the series together. If that's not something you care about then I guess it was great, though.

Also, why is Kojima credited with everything? There's like 5 people who wrote the last game and it says that in every introductory cutscene. Why are we not discussing their impact (or loss of it)? Reply0

I'm sure all this rhetoric about Uncharted being a great series is nonsense.

Even for a game with fun platformimg elements, an equally major part of the game -- combat -- is totally subpar. Besides that, I think the whole Internet has already been over how its attempt to tell a relatively grounded story maketh no senseth given Drake's serial killing tendencies.

Not even a cursory, 'man, all this intense killing business makes me wanna grab an ice cream.' Reply-1